Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District in Missouri to Pay $4.7 Billion to Cut Sewer Overflows (MO)

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District in
Missouri to Pay $4.7 Billion to Cut Sewer Overflows (MO)

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Aug. 4, 2011) - The
Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) has agreed to make
extensive improvements to its sewer systems and treatment plants,
at an estimated cost of $4.7 billion over 23 years, to eliminate
illegal overflows of untreated raw sewage, including basement
backups, and to reduce pollution levels in urban rivers and
streams, the Department of Justice and the U.S Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. This injunctive relief is
historic in its scope and importance to the people of St.
Louis.

The settlement reached between the United
States, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment Foundation and
MSD, requires MSD to install a variety of pollution controls,
including the construction of three large storage tunnels ranging
from approximately two miles to nine miles in length, and to expand
capacity at two treatment plants. These controls and similar
controls that MSD has already implemented will result in the
reduction of almost 13 billion gallons per year of overflows into
nearby streams and rivers.

MSD will also be required to develop and
implement a comprehensive plan to eliminate more than 200 illegal
discharge points within its sanitary sewer system. Finally, MSD
will engage in comprehensive and proactive cleaning, maintenance
and emergency response programs to improve sewer system performance
and to eliminate overflows from its sewer systems, including
basement backups, releases into buildings and onto
property.

“We are fully committed to vigorous
enforcement of the Clean Water Act, and will continue to work in
partnership with EPA to advance the goal of clean water for all
communities in our nation’s cities,” said Ignacia S.
Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice
Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“The people of St. Louis, including those who live in
minority and low-income communities, will receive tangible, lasting
benefits from this significant settlement.”

“St. Louis, America’s Gateway City,
grew up alongside the Mississippi. Unfortunately, for too long it
treated the river's tributaries as a dumping ground for
sewage,” EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks said.
“By moving forward with this Clean Water Act settlement, the
community is facing its responsibilities. This agreement will bring
jobs and long-term economic investments while significantly
improving the environment for future
generations.”

Today’s settlement will also significantly
advance the use of large scale green infrastructure projects to
control wet weather sewer overflows by requiring MSD to invest at
least $100 million in an innovative green infrastructure program,
focused in environmental justice communities in St. Louis.
Environmental justice communities include low-income or minority
communities who have suffered a disproportionate burden from air,
water or land pollution. Green infrastructure involves the use of
properties to store, infiltrate and evaporate stormwater to prevent
it from getting into the combined sewer system. Examples of
potential green infrastructure projects include green roofs,
bioretention, green streets, rain barrels, rain gardens and
permeable pavement.

MSD, in conjunction with the city of St. Louis
economic redevelopment authorities, will transform numerous vacant
or abandoned properties to productive use – helping to
revitalize disadvantaged communities and resulting in cleaner air
and green space. MSD will conduct public education and outreach,
and collaborate with local residents and neighborhood groups,
including those representing minority and/or low-income
neighborhoods, in selecting the locations of green infrastructure
projects.

MSD has also committed to spending $230 million
in a mitigation program to alleviate flooding and another $30
million in an enhanced pipe lining program, both of which are
focused exclusively in environmental justice areas. These programs
and the pioneering green infrastructure program of the settlement
will further the Department of Justice and EPA’s work to
advance environmental justice.

In addition to improving its sewer system and
treatment plants, MSD will spend $1.6 million on a supplemental
environmental project to implement a voluntary sewer connection and
septic tank closure program for low-income eligible residential
property owners who elect to close their septic tanks and connect
to the public sewer. MSD will also pay a civil penalty of $1.2
million to the United States.

MSD’s sewer system collects and treats
domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater from a population of
approximately 1.4 million in the city of St. Louis and nearly all
of St. Louis County. The system covers more than 525 square miles,
and includes seven wastewater treatment plants, 294 pumping
stations and more than 9,630 miles of sewer lines, making it the
fourth largest sewer system in the United States.

The settlement resolves the claims brought by
the United States in a lawsuit filed in June 2007 which the
Missouri Coalition for the Environment Foundation later intervened
under the citizen suit provisions of the federal Clean Water Act.
In that lawsuit, among other things, the United States alleged that
on at least 7,000 occasions between 2001 and 2005, failures in
MSD’s sewer system resulted in overflows of raw sewage into
residential homes, yards, public parks, streets and playground
areas.

Overflows pose a significant threat to public
health and water quality because raw sewage can have high
concentrations of bacteria from fecal contamination, as well as
disease-causing pathogens and viruses. These overflows can occur in
basements, backyards, city streets, and directly into stream and
rivers. This settlement goes a long way in preventing these
overflows.

Today’s settlement is the latest in a
series of Clean Water Act settlements that will reduce the
discharge of raw sewage and contaminated stormwater into United
States’ rivers, streams and lakes. Keeping raw sewage and
contaminated stormwater out of the waters of the United States is
one of EPA’s National Enforcement Initiatives for 2011 to
2013. The initiative focuses on reducing discharges from sewer
overflows by obtaining cities’ commitments to implement
timely, affordable solutions to these problems, including the
increased use of green infrastructure and other innovative
approaches.

The settlement, lodged today in U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, is subject to a 30-day
public comment period and court approval. A copy of the consent
decree and its appendices is available atwww.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

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Learn moreabout the consent decree with the Metropolitan
St. Louis Sewer District